Dear Church,
Last Sunday we kicked off our new fall series preaching through the Sermon on the Mount: Living the Politics of Jesus in a Partisan America. The first sermon was titled “Neither Left Nor Right Nor ‘Spiritual’: the Politics of Jesus”.
As Fr. Matt mentioned last week, in addition to preaching through the Sermon on the Mount in our worship gatherings, we will be recording podcast episodes to further reflect on the themes from the Scripture readings as well as the books we are reading together (click here to see the reading plan).
We also decided to host these conversations live online each week (via Facebook) for those who might be able to join us and interact. This week’s conversation will be TODAY (Wed Sept 9) at 3pm EDT. Here’s a link to join the live stream.
We will also record the conversation and publish it on our podcast feed. Search for “The Table Indy” in your podcast player to make sure you don’t miss an episode.
I didn’t have time to put the quote below (from Stanley Hauerwas) into my sermon on Sunday, but it encapsulates much of what I’m looking forward to learning with you during this series:
When he called his society together Jesus gave its members a new way of life to live. He gave them a new way to deal with offenders – by forgiving them. He gave them a new way to deal with violence – by suffering. He gave them a new way to deal with money – by sharing it. He gave them a new way to deal with problems of leadership – by drawing on the gift of every member, even the most humble. He gave them a new way to deal with a corrupt society – by building a new order, not smashing the old. He gave them a new pattern of relationship between man and woman, between parent and child… in which was made concrete a radical new vision of what it means to be human.
May our eyes be opened to see this new vision of humanity, and may our hearts be strengthened to trust Jesus enough to put these things into action in our community in concrete ways.
Grace and peace,
Fr. Ben
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